The present invention relates to a control system for a vehicle braking system, and more particularly to a control system for a vehicle braking system of the type including a brake signal transmitter and an electronic control system, and in which the electronic control system emits at least one electrical brake actuating signal dependent upon a brake signal transmitted thereto by the brake signal transmitter in response to driver actuation of same.
A known control system of this type is depicted, for example, in FIG. 2 of German patent DE 32 30 970 A1. The brake signal transmitter disclosed therein transmits one electrical brake signal, and is therefore a single-circuit electrical system. The control electronics described in the above patent are comprised of several blocks, respectively designated as "an electronic control system," "a load-dependent switching element" and "an electronic switching element for anti-lock protection." The control system serves to control the application and braking effect of brakes distributed over the axles of the vehicle to be braked. An individual brake actuation signal for each axle is emitted at the outputs of the control electronics which are formed by the outputs of the last-mentioned electronic switching element for anti-lock protection. The values of the brake actuation signals are calculated by the control electronics based upon the value of the braking signal received from the brake signal transmitter, as well as upon signals received from load and wheel speed sensors. The brake actuation signals in the above disclosed control system are therefore not solely dependent on the braking signal. It is, however, also known practice to calculate a brake actuation signal, or all brake actuation signals, based exclusively on the braking signal.
The brake actuation signals are transmitted to electrically controlled energy distributors which, in turn, produce and deliver the brake application energy to the brakes, or supply the brakes with brake application energy from energy reserves, as indicated by the brake actuation signals. The brakes in turn produce braking forces with values dependent upon the supplied brake application energy.
For purposes herein, the physical nature of the term "brake application energy" is not intended to be strictly construed, but rather considered as a collective term for all physical phenomena which produce braking force when supplied to a brake. In the above-mentioned publication, the brake application energy is pressure provided in the form of compressed air. However, the pressure of some other gaseous or fluid pressure medium, or electrical phenomena such as current and voltage, can also be considered brake application energy within its intended meaning.
European patent EP 0 467 112 A2 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,255,962) discloses a control system of the general type mentioned above which includes a two-circuit electrical brake signal transmitter, and in which the control electronics are divided into one or several central modules and wheel modules.
In the to be published German patent application DE 197 55 431.8, the wheel modules assigned to an axle are combined into an axle module.
From EP 0 399 162 B1 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,145,239), it is known to combine various components into a complete electronic control system.
In the vehicle industry it is customary to design and/or tune the components of the braking system, as well as the components of other vehicle systems, in specific relation to the application and/or operational conditions of the individual vehicle models or vehicle product line, with the goal of optimizing the operational behavior of the vehicles. For this reason, it is as a rule necessary to produce and store a wide variety of differently configured brake signal transmitters, as well as many variants of the control electronics of the control system mentioned above, resulting in considerable storage costs.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a simple solution for lowering the storage costs of the various components of a control system for a vehicle braking system.